Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to monitor access to apprenticeships by young people of all socio-economic backgrounds as part of its social mobility strategy.

The department has set an ambitious targets to increase the proportion of apprenticeships started by people of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities by 20 per cent by 2020 (from a baseline average of 10 per cent during 2010-15 Parliament). We also want to increase the proportion of higher value apprenticeship starts for disadvantaged apprentices which includes young people.

We have set out how we will measure and report progress against these ambitions in our Apprenticeship Reform Programme Benefits Realisation document (March 2017) published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/604401/Apprenticeship_Reform_Programme_-_Benefits_Realisation_Strategy.pdf. This includes statistical data including the apprenticeship level, age group, sector subject area, region and diversity characteristics.

In addition, we are currently undertaking the FE Learner and Apprentices survey, including approximately 6,500 apprentices, to collect detailed demographic and social mobility data along with information on barriers to learning.